1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and apparatus of building construction, and more particularly to the application of stucco to the wall ofa building.
2. Prior Art
Stucco is a building finish that is applied to walls of those buildings, to make them weather proof and have a finished appearance. Stucco has been used primarily in the Southwest and South of the United States prior to the introduction of improved insulating techniques. Those insulating techniques typically include the use of elongated blocks of a pre-formed rigid open cell polystyrene. These polystyrene blocks are held on to a wall surface by mechanical fasteners, or by being adhered to the wall substrate with an adhesive. In this prior art practice, once those polystyrene foam insulation blocks are fixably attached to the wall, they are roughened by a rasp to permit a base coat of polymer paste reinforced with a fiberglass fabric mesh, to help bind subsequent material to that foam, and to unify those blocks together. That mesh in the prior art method, would be placed over the roughened outer surfaces of those blocks of foam on a base coat of cementitious material while still wet, to embed that mesh in the base coat. The base coat of cementitious material and mesh are trowelled smooth and made generally planer, to be parallel with the surface of the original wall. A finish coat of synthetic stucco would then be applied to the base coat of the cementitious material.
The problem of the prior art, however, remains that the polystyrene boards are used as discrete, separate gap-maintaining blocks, and may supported by array of channels or grids or adhesive to attach them to a wall. Any gap or crack between the adjacent blocks or gap between the blocks and the wall substrate permits the infiltration/migration of water, which then seeps into the existing walls surface and causes mildew, moisture build-up, rot and wall deterioration. Joints between the adjacent boards may induce cracking in the outer surface layers of material if those boards are not installed tightly against one another and the wall.
It is an object of the present invention, to provide a stucco wall construction arrangement which prevents water intrusion and migration into the wall structure, and which will overcome those typical problems of the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention, to provide a stucco wall construction which will prevent the infiltration of water into the existing wall surface.
It is still yet a further object of the present invention, to provide a stucco construction arrangement which is easily applied, readily modified to accommodate variations in base wall surface characteristics, and permit an even outer surface for subsequent coat applications.
It is yet still a further object of the present invention to provide a stucco construction arrangement that is fast, easily applied, energy efficient, strong and which will outlast the prior art stucco construction by many years.